Akhilesh, the real star in Samajwadi Party
Lucknow, March 6
Akhilesh Yadav, the 39-year-old heir apparent of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh is clearly the man of the moment at the Samajwadi Party headquarters.
The graduation from ‘bhaiyaji’ to ‘adhyakshji’ (state president) and now the possibility of ‘mukhya mantriji’ has been a long struggle for the three-time Kannauj MP. This was a battle he fiercely fought both on the streets and inside the family quarters, emerging the winner on both fronts.

PM’s tough stand on NGOs earns him an admirer in SanghNew Delhi, March 6Support for the Prime Minister has come from the most unexpected quarter - the
RSS. The latest (March 3) issue of RSS mouthpiece ‘The Organiser’ has devoted a whole issue with its cover carrying Manmohan Singh’s photo, forcefully supporting the Prime Minister’s recent outpouring against the NGOs for obstructing the launching of the Kudankulam nuclear energy plant in Tamil
Nadu. — TNS

‘Anti-graft’ image didn’t work for Mayawati
Lucknow, March 6
BSP supremo Mayawati was perhaps the first to suspect a huge anti-incumbency factor working against her government.
She thus went to great lengths in an attempt to salvage her party with a massive ‘clean-up exercise’ involving throwing out of 23 ministers and dozens of legislators and replacing more than 100 sitting MLAs weeks before the Assembly elections.

Boy killed in celebratory firing
Lucknow, March 6
A young boy was killed in celebratory firing allegedly by Samajwadi supporters after the party candidate’s victory in the Sambhal area today. SP workers also clashed with some TV cameramen in Jhansi during which their equipment was broken.

BJP happy at being No. 3 in UP
New Delhi, March 6
For the BJP, today’s Assembly election results were more than satisfying, notwithstanding considerable drubbing it received in Uttar Pradesh.
Party president Nitin Gadkari said, “In Punjab, we have created a history of sorts. Never before in the state history, the ruling party or coalition has returned to power. We were very apprehensive about Punjab. But the people have given us a mandate for the second time, they have shown faith in the NDA leadership under our Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and I thank the people of Punjab.”

BJP president Nitin Gadkari (C), with party leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad (R) and Ananth Kumar, smiles during a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. — PTI

BJP wave swamps Congress in Goa8 ministers bite the dust z All 4 Alemao family members lose
Mumbai, March 6
The Digambar Kamat-led Congress government in Goa suffered an embarrassing defeat with most of its stalwarts biting the dust, mainly at the hands of newbies fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
MP and Congress member Churchill Alemao (2R) leaves a counting centre in Margao, Goa, on Tuesday. — AFP

Photo-finish in U’khand: Cong 32, BJP 31
*CM Khanduri loses *Cong stakes claim to form govt *Guv to decide
Dehradun, March 6
Voters in Uttarakhand have delivered a hung House with both the Congress and the BJP falling short by four and five seats respectively for a simple majority in the Assembly of 70 members. While the Congress won 32 seats, BJP bagged 31.

Gadkari emerges stronger after poll results
New Delhi, March 6
Even though the BJP has performed rather dismally in the UP assembly elections, the overall outcome in the five states seem to have further entrenched Nitin Gadkari as irreplaceable, at least till the next General Election.

Thrice in a row for Cong in Manipur
Guwahati, March 6
Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has once again proved that he is a hard nut to crack.
The veteran Congressman had led the party to the third consecutive victory in
Manipur, the most troubled state in the North-East belying speculation about a hung Assembly.

Cong’s third hat-trick CM
Imphal, March 6
After Sheila Dikshit (Delhi) and Tarun Gogoi (Assam), Okram Ibobi Singh became the third Congress CM to lead the party to three consecutive wins in Assembly elections.

Mayawati’s drubbing a setback to Telangana cause!
Hyderabad, March 6
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s electoral drubbing is likely to find its echo in far-away Telangana region of Andhra
Pradesh. The defeat of Mayawati, a strong supporter of
the demand for separate Telangana state, is seen here as a setback to the Telangana cause.

Opinion sharply divided on Rahul’s performance in UP
New Delhi, March 6
Opinion was divided on the success or otherwise of Rahul Gandhi's hard campaign in Uttar Pradesh during which he toured 207 constituencies.
With Congress appearing to be winning only 28 seats in the 403-member House, the 'Mission UP 2012' by Rahul is ending up adding only six more seats to its tally in the previous assembly election.

Poll drubbing means rough ride for Cong ahead
New Delhi, March 6
While the Congress will necessarily have to resort to course correction to put the party on the path of recovery in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, its more immediate task is to ensure the stability of the UPA government as the results of the assembly elections have rendered it more vulnerable to the opposition’s attack.

94% flunk Teachers’ Eligibility Test
New Delhi, March 6
If the CBSE’s Teachers’ Eligibility Test is any indication, a majority of wannabe teachers in India are not fit to teach. A staggering 94 per cent candidates failed this year’s Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) which the CBSE conducted in January to assess prospective teachers for student instruction skills.

SC upholds death penalty for minor’s rape, murder
New Delhi, March 6
The Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence awarded to a 31-year-old man convicted for raping and killing a three-year-old minor, observing that the punishment would act as a deterrent to potential criminals.

India, China resolve to maintain border peaceNew Delhi, March 6Operationalising the newly formed working mechanism for border management, India and China today resolved to continue efforts for maintaining peace and tranquillity along their border.

Lucknow, March 6
"Umeed ki cycle" caught imagination of the Uttar Pradesh voters, resulting in a decisive win for the Samajwadi Party. Now it is clear that the heavy turnout of voters, especially women, was in favour of the party that promised "something for everyone".

The voters proved poll pundits wrong for the second consecutive time by not giving UP a hung Assembly. The SP looks all set to go beyond Mayawati's magic figure of 206 seats in 2007. The Congress and the BJP, which had paratrooped their national leaders as star campaigners could not cross even 50 seats each.

From the first round of counting in the morning, SP's clear lead was well established, a trend that continued throughout the day, making the SP workers start election victory-cum-Holi celebrations on the streets.

There was a mela-like atmosphere at the Vikramaditya Marg office of the Samajwadi Party. The faces were much younger and savvier than those found on the party campus when "netaji" held his impromptu meetings on the manicured lawns of the office.

In the party's media room, state president Akhilesh Yadav's media manager Ashish Yadav was surrounded by journalists, a Danish research scholar and supporters. Basking in the new-found glory of a gigantic victory, he said, "I used to sit here alone. See what a difference victory can bring. No one in the party took the exit polls seriously. We knew that our tally would be in the region of 220."

For no other party was it a question of do or die like it was for the SP under an ailing patriarch, facing fratricidal warfare, jungle raj image, after-effects of the anti-Muslim alliance of 2009 and a revengeful Amar Singh on the prowl.

After 2009, Mulayam Singh brought son Akhilesh to the state to head the party while brother Shivpal was the Leader of Opposition. Akhilesh slowly emerged as a strong leader in the state calling the shots as the election campaigning progressed.

His stamp was clear on the party media campaign and manifesto promising free laptops to Class XII students, free education and unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 a month that led to a huge rush at employment exchanges across the state.

Emerging as the only viable alternative that would unseat the Mayawati government, the Samajwadi Party became the sole beneficiary of the anti-incumbency factor being faced by the controversy-ridden Mayawati government.

The Congress, in its own way, did help pump some air into the SP's cycle by repeatedly raising the issue of President's Rule in case of a hung Assembly, making the party ask for a decisive victory in the subsequent phases.

The Samajwadi Party’s promise of a Muslim quota within the OBC quota (specifying no percentages) also seems to have worked for it.

What worked for the SP was the visible generational change at the top, shedding of some antiquated socialist baggage and an energetic and intensive campaign supported by a well-oiled party machinery.

Among the many surprises that this election threw up was the Congress being wiped out from the party's so-called fiefdom of Rae Bareli and Amethi where the Gandhi-Nehru family had put its personal prestige at stake. The most embarrassing result was in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli where the party did not win even one of the five Assembly seats. In Amethi, the constituency of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, the party managed to salvage two seats of Jagdishpur and Tiloi while conceding to the SP the remaining three seats of Amethi, Gauriganj and Salon.

United in defeat

Far from pushing the party to form a government in UP, Congress' MPs and ministers in Delhi could not even come to the rescue of their wives and sons. Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid's wife Louise Khurshid was reduced to the fifth position in
Farukhabad. Union Minister for Steel Beni Verma's son Rakesh Kumar Verma was the third in
Dariyabad, Barabanki. Sultanpur MP Sanjay Sinh’s wife Ameeta Sinh was defeated in family's pocket borough of
Amethi. Supriya Aron, Congress Mayor of Barelliy who is also the wife of the Congress MP from Bareilly Praveen
Aron, was reduced to the fourth position in Bareilly Cantonment. Domariyaganj Congress MP Jagdambika Pal also could not help his son Abhishek Pal win the Basti Sadar seat.

Lucknow, March 6
Akhilesh Yadav, the 39-year-old heir apparent of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh is clearly the man of the moment at the Samajwadi Party headquarters.
The graduation from ‘bhaiyaji’ to ‘adhyakshji’ (state president) and now the possibility of ‘mukhya mantriji’ has been a long struggle for the three-time Kannauj MP. This was a battle he fiercely fought both on the streets and inside the family quarters, emerging the winner on both fronts.

Addressing the media, he expressed gratitude to the state’s voters for rising above caste and community divides to elect an SP government.

The party’s parliamentary committee would meet tomorrow to finalise the name of the next CM.

Despite a positive exit poll during the last few days, he refused to make exuberant comments to the media. Today, while facing the media, he refused to succumb to the photojournalists’ request of flashing the ‘V’ for victory sign for the benefit of their cameras.

Sounding almost philosophical, he refused to comment on his victory or the fiasco of Rahul Gandhi’s campaign. “In politics, someone has to win and someone has to lose. Last time, we lost; this time, someone had to take that slot,” he said in a matter-of-fact manner.

Being generous to his most vicious opponent, he categorically assured that no statue at any of the parks would be removed, not even the CM Mayawati’s. “We may build hospitals and educational institutions in the empty spaces out there,” he hinted.

This sagacious statement comes after running over months an election campaign charging the Mayawati government with misusing public money by erecting statues and stone parks.

Refraining from making any politically incorrect statement, Akhilesh repeatedly asserted that the choice of the Chief Minister was clearly ‘netaji’ (Mulayam Singh). “The people as well as the party workers only want him as the Chief Minister,” he said.

Setting out the new SP government’s priorities, the young leader said it was all spelt out in the party’s manifesto. “We are committed to implementing our manifesto,” he stated.

Countering the ‘goonda raj’ charges, Akhilesh said anyone not respecting the rule of law would be dealt with sternly.

The SP lost power in 2007, which was followed by a more serious setback in 2009 and the defeat of Akhilesh’s wife Dimple to the Congress’s Raj Babbar in the Firozabad byelection in 2009, which was surely a turning point for him.

With the Congress's Rahul Gandhi and the Rashtriya Lok Dal's Jayant Chaudhury Yadav billed as forming the troika of youth power in the state, Akhilesh says it is more the imagination of the media.

How the young leader will balance the socialist culture with the aspirations of the demanding upwardly mobile youth is the test in the coming days.

Lucknow, March 6
BSP supremo Mayawati was perhaps the first to suspect a huge anti-incumbency factor working against her government.
She thus went to great lengths in an attempt to salvage her party with a massive ‘clean-up exercise’ involving throwing out of 23 ministers and dozens of legislators and replacing more than 100 sitting MLAs weeks before the Assembly elections.

The belated damage control to distance her party from the corruption of its leaders did not cut ice with the state’s voters.

The magic which she had woven in 2007 with so-called social engineering clearly remained an empty slogan this time.

Of the 403 seats, Mayawati had this time given tickets for 88 (21.83 per cent) to the Dalits, 113 (28 per cent) to OBCs, 85 (21.09 per cent) to Muslims and 77 (19.10 per cent) to Brahmins, 33 (8.18 per cent) to Rajputs and the remaining to those from communities like the Kayasths, Vaishyas and even Punjabis.

However, this delicate balancing of castes and communities as per their share in population did not work in the absence of an enthusiastic ‘sarvajan’ voter.

According to an old Kanshi Ram supporter who was shown the door soon after 2007, the undoing of Mayawati this time was her handing over the government and party to new people who looted both the government and the party till it got too late to recover.

“She depended on a clutch of bureaucrats who ran the government like their personal fiefdom, cutting her from receiving popular feedback. They built an imaginary security phobia, making her completely inaccessible to even ministers, not to speak of party MLAs and common party workers,” he complained.

Mayawati may be down but she cannot be completely written off as her party, reports say, still commands 27 per cent of the vote share in UP, which is just 3 per cent down from 2007’s 30 per cent, which had put 206 seats in the BSP’s kitty.

Lucknow, March 6
A young boy was killed in celebratory firing allegedly by Samajwadi supporters after the party candidate’s victory in the Sambhal area today. SP workers also clashed with some TV cameramen in Jhansi during which their equipment was broken.

The police said 12-year-old Danish died after being hit by a bullet during celebratory firing, allegedly by supporters of SP candidate from the Sambhal Assembly seat, Iqbal Mahmood, this evening. Sambhal is about 350 km from Lucknow.

Superintendent of Police D K Garg said necessary action was being taken.

Reports reaching here from Jhansi said supporters of the SP clashed with some TV cameramen during which their equipment was broken. A complaint in that regard had been lodged with the administration, sources said. — PTI

New Delhi, March 6
For the BJP, today’s Assembly election results were more than satisfying, notwithstanding considerable drubbing it received in Uttar Pradesh.

Party president Nitin Gadkari said, “In Punjab, we have created a history of sorts. Never before in the state history, the ruling party or coalition has returned to power. We were very apprehensive about Punjab. But the people have given us a mandate for the second time, they have shown faith in the NDA leadership under our Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and I thank the people of Punjab.”

“In Goa, the people have voted out the corrupt and inept government of the Congress that had been involved in mining and other scams. We have also disproved there the charge of being a communal party with a Catholic candidate from our side winning this time.

“In Uttarakhand, we are most likely to form the government with the support of other smaller parties and Independents,” claimed the BJP president.

He was a little sheepish for the party’s dismal performance in Uttar Pradesh and tried to explain it away saying in a four-party contest, there was complete polarisation in favour of the SP. There were four parties in the fray and the people had resolved to defeat Mayawati’s BSP. Since the Samajwadi Party was the strongest party in the state against the BSP, all votes polarised in its favour.”

Formal statements apart, the BJP is celebrating not so much its victory in Goa or the hope of somehow scraping through in Uttarakhand, it draws tremendous consolation from the fact that it has managed to retain number three position in UP and for the hype around Rahul Gandhi, the Congress could not beat it to the third position.

A party insider confided, “Actually we were very worried that the Congress should not beat us to the number three position and we are happy that despite all Rahul’s efforts, the Congress has failed to beat us in UP.”

In the fine print, it is not such a rosy picture for the BJP, as Gadkari would have us believe. Sitting Uttarakhand Chief Minister and BJP’s honesty mascot BC Khanduri, on whose apparent strength the BJP managed to retrieve some ground, lost himself.

The party also lost the traditional assembly constituency of former CM Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. And the man whom the BJP replaced for change of image, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has romped home comfortably, causing a major embarrassment to the party, which made such a capital of corruption issue.

The party would not like to be reminded of the humiliating defeat of its state president Surya Pratap Shahi in Pathardeva, thanks to the declared decision of their Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath or Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi’s pronouncement of victory for the SP.

“The party sits and does a review after each election. This will be done in due course. Not now,” Gadkari concluded in reply to a question.

Mumbai, March 6
The Digambar Kamat-led Congress government in Goa suffered an embarrassing defeat with most of its stalwarts biting the dust, mainly at the hands of newbies fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Among those who received a drubbing at the hustings include Home Minister Ravi Naik and state Congress chief Subash Shirodkar. Naik lost to a former police officer fielded by the BJP.

Other big losers were members of the controversial Alemao family who arm-twisted the Congress-NCP alliance into fielding four of them in different parts of Goa. All four led by local strongman Churchill Alemao and his minister-brother Joaquim were defeated.

The BJP which, along with its ally the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), bagged a majority in the 40-member Assembly said it had received the support of vast sections of the Goan people.

"The Congress has been punished in Goa. I am proud of the fact that I got support from Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike. They have voted to save Goa," BJP leader and chief ministerial candidate Manohar Parrikar told reporters in the capital Panjim today.

With a view to woo the minority Christian community, the BJP backed eight Catholics in areas dominated by the community. With many of them winning, Parrikar promised to take everybody with him and promised an inclusive government.

Among his first priorities, Parrikar said, was to usher in a value-added tax regime and work to bring down inflation.

The Congress admitted to a number of mistakes which it said contributed to the defeat in Goa. Winning candidate and senior party leader Mauvin Godhinho said the decision to field four members of the Alemao family clearly backfired. "Allegations of 'family raj' hurt us," Godinho said.

The Digambar Kamat government had been criticised for encouraging illegal mining in the state. Unscrupulous mine owners allegedly backed by ruling party leaders were accused of forcing people out of their ancestral property so that iron ore could be mined to feed demand in China.

In recent months, the Congress was also accused of working in tandem with Mumbai-based builders to classify huge tracts of village land as urban zones to facilitate housing projects aimed at people from outside the state.

Outgoing Chief Minister Digambar Kamat who submitted his resignation blamed the party leadership for the defeat. Though he had given the state a stable government for full five years, the party did not project him as its chief ministerial candidate, Kamat complained.

Dehradun, March 6
Voters in Uttarakhand have delivered a hung House with both the Congress and the BJP falling short by four and five seats respectively for a simple majority in the Assembly of 70 members. While the Congress won 32 seats, BJP bagged 31.

The biggest surprise, however, was the defeat of Chief Minister BC
Khanduri, who had spearheaded BJP’s campaign, conducted on the slogan, ‘ Khanduri Hai
Zaroori’ (Khanduri is necessary). The man who had been removed as CM late last year for inefficiency and corruption to make way for
Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, however, won comfortably and lost no time in saying that the BJP would have done even better if he had not been replaced as CM.

The Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP), which had eight legislators in the outgoing assembly, also suffered a big jolt. BSP could win only three seats. The BSP had won seven seats in 2002 and increased its tally by one more seat in 2007. This time the BSP failed to open its account in the Udham Singh Nagar district. In the outgoing assembly, it had two seats from Udham Singh Nagar district and six from Haridwar district. This time it could only win three seats in
Haridwar.

Both the factions of Uttarkhand Kranti Dal ( UKD) also suffered badly. The UKD
(Diwakar), headed by Diwakar Bhatt and which had given support to the outgoing BJP government and fought on the BJP symbol, was wiped out. The rival faction, UKD
(Panwar) could only manage to win a solitary seat from Yamunotri.

In the terai areas of the state, namely Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar district, the BJP did very well by winning seven out of nine seats in Udham Singh Nagar district and five out of eleven seats in Haridwar district. The terai region of the state voted either for the Congress or the BSP in the past elections.

The Uttarakhand Raksha
Morcha, floated by Lt Gen TPS Rawat (retd) also failed to find favour with the voters.
Lt-GenTPS Rawat (retd) himself lost the election in Lansdown. Khanduri said he did not get enough time to expedite development work and claimed that the BJP had done reasonably well.

Birender Singh, Congress general Secretary and in charge of Uttarakhand said Congress being the single largest party should be invited to form the government. Meeting of the newly elected Congress legislators will be held either tomorrow or after
Holi. “We would stake our claim after Holi,” he said.

On getting support from independents, he replied that all the secular forces in the state would join hands to form the government. All the three independent legislators are Congress rebels.

New Delhi, March 6
Even though the BJP has performed rather dismally in the UP assembly elections, the overall outcome in the five states seem to have further entrenched Nitin Gadkari as irreplaceable, at least till the next General Election.

With the Congress not making any appreciable mark in this round of elections, and the Congress visibly on the backfoot what with many of its allies too skeptical of its ability to deliver, the BJP is busy angling for emerging as the axis around which all the anti-Congress regional satraps at the Centre can revolve.

The BJP is working on plans to further crack the UPA alliance, through not just Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, but even eyeing Mulayam Singh Yadav for the coming Budget session of Parliament beginning March 12. Additionally the fourth front, as it may be called, comprising
Mamata, Jayalalithaa, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik and Chandrababu Naidu is waiting in the wings to align with the
BJP-led NDA in the name of displacing the Congress from the Centre.

Guwahati, March 6
Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has once again proved that he is a hard nut to crack.
The veteran Congressman had led the party to the third consecutive victory in
Manipur, the most troubled state in the North-East belying speculation about a hung Assembly.

The Congress is all set to form the next government in the state on its own. It is no mean feat for Ibobi Singh considering the ground situation in insurgency infested Manipur where Naga rebels create trouble almost every next day in hill areas making governance a difficult task there.

The Congress victory is commendable in the sense that after so many life-sapping national highway blockades during the last regime of Ibobi Singh, the people of Manipur have chosen to opt for the “development and stability” plank of the Congress ignoring the rag-tag alliance of Opposition parties that failed to project one single formidable leader as the chief ministerial candidate.

The blanket boycott call given by a coordination committee of all the insurgent groups in the valley areas of Manipur had severely hampered electioneering of Congress candidates, but obviously voters were not impressed by the highhandedness of militants who tried to dictate terms to the voters through the gun.

The militants tried all the tricks available to them to create an atmosphere of terror to coerce the voters to reject the Congress but to no avail.

The insurgents in Manipur nurture a grudge against Ibobi Singh and his government for the hard stand taken by the party’s government against militants for ignoring the “popular” demand of withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. But it has paid dividends for the ruling Congress in the polls as people have voted for security and stability.

The Opposition parties in Manipur have cut a sorry figure despite the Congress facing charges of corruption and misrule.

The poll outcome indicates that the Trinamool Congress could impress some voters in the troubled state while the regional Nagaland People’s Front
(NPF) failed to make new ground despite fielding more candidates in the elections this time.

Imphal, March 6After Sheila Dikshit (Delhi) and Tarun Gogoi (Assam), Okram Ibobi Singh became the third Congress CM to lead the party to three consecutive wins in Assembly elections.

Born to Okram Angoubi and Lukamani Devi on July 19, 1948 in Thoubal Athokpam, Singh, a graduate in arts, was first elected to fourth Manipur Legislative Assembly as an Independent candidate in 1984. He was chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Board from November 1985 to January 1988.

In 1990, he was re-elected to the fifth Manipur Legislative Assembly on Congress ticket and became Industries Minister. He was again elected to the Assembly in March 2002 and became the Chief Minister.

In the 2007 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 31 seats in the 60-member Assembly, but this time the tally improved further. — PTI

Hyderabad, March 6The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s electoral drubbing is likely to find its echo in far-away Telangana region of Andhra
Pradesh. The defeat of Mayawati, a strong supporter of
the demand for separate Telangana state, is seen here as a setback to the Telangana cause.

The Bahujan Samaj Party chief’s poll-eve political gambit, seeking a four-way split of UP, has come a cropper. The voters have unambiguously rejected
the idea, going by the losses suffered by BSP in these regions.

This may well turn out to be a grim message for the Telangana protagonists who have been mounting pressure on the UPA government to carve out a separate state. They have been banking on the support of leaders like Mayawati to bring the Telangana issue to the centrestage of national politics.

During her recent visit to Hyderabad, Mayawati had extended her party’s full support to the statehood movement and even added a new dimension to the issue, remarking that creation of separate Telangana state would help in the empowerment of Dalits.

The issue of smaller states is now expected to go off the radars of political parties with the BSP’s rout at the hustings. While hailing the UP verdict, the Telugu Desam Party President and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said “Clearly, the people of UP did not believe Mayawati even after her government sent an Assembly resolution to the Centre favouring splitting the state into
four parts. The people have voted for a stable leadership and for a party that can provide a
stable government.”

Naidu’s remarks assume significance against the backdrop of continued political uncertainty over Telangana issue and the vertical division among the main parties including the TDP. Naidu himself has been quite ambivalent on the statehood demand because of the regional pulls and pressures within his party.

The political observers say that the UP mandate could prompt the Congress central leadership to
put the Telangana issue on the backburner.

“It has become clear that the people are not attracted by the promise of separate state. This may influence the party high command
in deciding against formation of separate Telangana state,” a Congress source said.

The anti-Telangana elements within the Congress may now feel emboldened and argue that any move to split the states for the sake of political expediency could prove dangerous for the country’s unity and integrity. “The states cannot be divided on the basis of whims and fancies of some politicians,” the Congress MP from the coastal Andhra city of Vijayawada L Rajagopal said.

New Delhi, March 6
Opinion was divided on the success or otherwise of Rahul Gandhi's hard campaign in Uttar Pradesh during which he toured 207 constituencies.
With Congress appearing to be winning only 28 seats in the 403-member House, the 'Mission UP 2012' by Rahul is ending up adding only six more seats to its tally in the previous assembly election.

troubled days ahead?

The tally was far less compared to the leads secured by Congress in 95 assembly segments of the 22 Lok Sabha constituencies that the party had won in 2009.

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the results show that this is the "second consecutive defeat for
Rahul" in Uttar Pradesh, while former Union minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad gave him credit for strengthening his
party.

"Rahul Gandhi has worked very hard. Congress has got strengthened due to Rahul in Uttar
Pradesh. Victories and defeats are part of elections and people decide it. Whatever Congress has gained in UP is due to
Rahul. He has made the party visible in the state," the RJD chief
said.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari said, "Congress party had made the elections a prestige issue for Rahul Gandhi. The results have come as a big shock for the party." Congress leaders Salman
Khurshid, Ambika Soni, Digvijay Singh and Janardan Dwivedi hailed Rahul's leadership that he has made "immense contribution" to end the "misrule" of
Mayawati.

What has really come as a rude shock to the party is that it performed miserably even in its pocket borough of Raebareli and
Amethi, where it won only two of the ten seats. Congress had won seven of these seats in the last election.

The party also fared badly in Bundelkhand region for which the UPA government announced a special package after Rahul's initiative.

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh owned "full responsibility" for the party's flop show in Uttar
Pradesh, but skirted questions about resigning from the post over the issue.

"This matter is between me and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi," was his brief response when asked whether he had offered to resign from the post of AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh after party's dismal performance in UP elections.

"I am extremely hurt, disappointed and feel guilty...I am a loyal sepoy of Congress. I take full responsibility for whatever has happened," Singh told reporters after meeting the Congress president." — PTI

New Delhi, March 6
While the Congress will necessarily have to resort to course correction to put the party on the path of recovery in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, its more immediate task is to ensure the stability of the UPA government as the results of the assembly elections have rendered it more vulnerable to the opposition’s attack.

Already in the dock on charges of corruption and poor governance, the Congress-led UPA government was depending on a favourable verdict in these polls, particularly the crucial state of Uttar
Pradesh, to salvage its image and arrest the downslide in
its credibility.

The Congress had hoped to play a critical role in the formation of the next
government in Uttar Pradesh (led by Samajwadi Party) in return for its support at the Centre which would have helped reduce its dependence on the mercurial Trinamool Congress chief and West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

As it happens, the UPA government faces a tough time ahead during the crucial budget session of Parliament commencing on March 12.

Given the aggressive stand adopted by the BJP over the past year as it systematically blocked key legislations to embarrass the ruling coalition, there is nothing to suggest that the opposition is going to be kind to the Manmohan Singh government.

The UPA does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha which makes it doubly difficult for it to pass important Bills.

A number of crucial legislations, including the Lokpal Bill, have been derailed for this reason while key policy decisions on FDI in retail and the establishment of a national anti-terror body hit a roadblock following objections from UPA allies and the opposition.

With the Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill, projected as its flagship legislations, still in the pipeline, the Congress is predictably worried that it will have little
to show for itself in the next election if governance is impeded.

Besides pushing through its legislative agenda, the election of the President and Vice-President poses the next big challenge for the
UPA. Given the present strength in the assemblies, the Congress will have to zero in on a candidate who will be acceptable to the other political parties. The opposition will naturally drive a hard bargain and it is expected it could push for a vice-presidential candidate of its choice. This proposition is also fraught with problems as the vice-president is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha where the ruling combine is in a minority.

With regional parties getting strengthened, there is every possibility of non-Congress and
non-BJP parties getting together to take on the Congress even as the party faces another set of assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year. Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar (JD-U)), Naveen Patnaik
(BJD), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), J.Jayalalithaa (AIADMK) demonstrated their clout when they joined hands to oppose the setting up of the
NCTC. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has shown interest in such a grouping and if the move gathers momentum,
the newly strengthened SP and other UPA allies like NCP chief Sharad Pawar may be tempted to throw their lot with the emerging “Fourth Front.”

New Delhi, March 6
If the CBSE’s Teachers’ Eligibility Test is any indication, a majority of wannabe teachers in India are not fit to teach. A staggering 94 per cent candidates failed this year’s Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) which the CBSE conducted in January to assess prospective teachers for student instruction skills.

The collective performance is apparently worse than last year, when 86 per cent candidates had failed to score the 60 per cent pass marks required to clear the TET. Under the Right to Education Act, the TET has been made a mandatory qualification for anyone seeking to teach students in a primary or elementary school.

This requirement was notified by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on February 11, 2011, following which the CBSE had conducted the first TET last year.

At that time, 86 per cent candidates - 97,919 out of 7.1 lakh who appeared for the test - had cleared the test. In this year’s test held on January 29, only 6.15 per cent candidates managed to make the grade. Of the 9,00,815 who took the two papers, barely 55,422 qualified either for Paper I or II or both at the All-India level.

The TET comprises two papers - Paper I for those who want to teach primary level students (classes I to V) and Paper II for those wanting to teach elementary level students (classes VI to VIII).

The candidates are supposed to be ones who have either completed teacher training courses from institutes recognised by the National Council for Teacher Education or are in the process of completing the courses.

Everyone pursuing a teacher education course recognised by the NCTE or the Rehabilitation Council of India is eligible to sit for TET and must pass it to be able to get employment as a teacher in any elementary school.

The TET, in effect, is modelled along the lines of the National Eligibility Test for college and university teachers and its certificate would be valid for seven years, which means anyone who clears the TET but doesn’t get a job for seven years must then reappear for the test in the eighth year.

“The results are shockingly poor, but they at least help us set the minimum uniform standards for teachers in the country. We at least know who are good in the system,” HRD Ministry sources said.

The one-hour test comprises multiple choice questions (MCQs), each bearing one mark and there is no negative marking. It tests candidates for two languages, child development, educational psychology and specialised subjects.

who will STEM THE ROT?

* The collective performance is apparently worse than last year, when 86% candidates had failed to score the 60% pass marks required to clear the
TET.

* The one-hour test comprises multiple choice questions (MCQs), each bearing one mark and there is no negative marking.

*
Under the Right to Education Act, the TET has been made a mandatory qualification for anyone seeking to teach students in a primary school.

Central TET in five states on May 5

In the states that went to polls — Manipur, Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand and Goa — the central TET will be held on May 5. The CBSE had to postpone it following advice of the Election Commission of India. As many as 76,004 candidates are to appear in the test in these states.

New Delhi, March 6
The Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence awarded to a 31-year-old man convicted for raping and killing a three-year-old minor, observing that the punishment would act as a deterrent to potential criminals.

“Every punishment imposed is bound to have its effect not only on the accused, but also on the society as a whole,” a Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar pointed out, quoting an earlier SC verdict.

The convict, RP Wasnik, committed the crime in the “most brutal manner” and could not prove his innocence except saying he had been falsely implicated which was “unbelievable and unsustainable,” the Bench ruled.

SC spares life of man who killed wife, 3 kids

The Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence awarded to a man for killing his wife and three children in February 2005 after suspecting that she was having an affair with a neighbour.

A Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar converted the death penalty into life imprisonment for 21 years, citing mitigating circumstances such as the convict trying to kill himself out of “great remorse”. The Bench said going by the conduct of the convict before, during and after committing the crime, it was a case for commutation.

Rape and killing: 4 let off the noose

The Supreme Court has let off the noose four persons sentenced to death for gang raping and killing a woman in Chhattisgarh by commuting the capital punishment to that of life term for 21 years. The Additional Sessions Judge, Bilaspur, had convicted them in November 2007. All the accused were in the 21-31 age group at the time of committing the crime.

New Delhi, March 6
Operationalising the newly formed working mechanism for border management, India and China today resolved to continue efforts for maintaining peace and tranquillity along their border.

Top officials of the two countries met in the Chinese capital and firmed up the rules that would govern the joint mechanism which was formed during the 15th round of boundary talks between the Special Representatives of the two countries held in New Delhi in January. It was decided that the mechanism would hold one or two meetings a year, and if required, the two sides would hold emergency consultations either through meetings or by telephone/video conferencing.

The border mechanism was formed to avoid any untoward incidents between the troops on ground while patrolling the various points. The two-day talks, which concluded in Beijing today, were held between an Indian delegation led Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the External Affairs Ministry and Deng Zhonghua, Director General, Department of Boundary and Oceanic Affairs of China.

The seven-member Indian delegation included senior officials of the Home and Defence ministries as well members of the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The Chinese delegation included representatives from Foreign Ministry and Ministry of National Defence. “The talks were held in a constructive and forward looking atmosphere with the common objective of continuing to maintain peace and tranquility in the India-China border areas," a statement issued by MEA here said.

The two sides reviewed the situation prevailing in the India-China border areas and noted the adherence by both sides to the various agreements for maintenance of peace and
tranquillity.